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Decent sign-up bonus (not necessarily cashback, maybe miles/points) for spending $2000-3000...

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mikka1
Frequent Contributor

Decent sign-up bonus (not necessarily cashback, maybe miles/points) for spending $2000-3000...

A couple of my friends living overseas asked me to buy them some stuff in the US worth roughly $2000-2500 in total. They will either wire me the money or hand it over to me in cash when we meet in person in the end of the month. So I have a chance now to easily spend roughly $2000-3000 on any card almost in one go without falling out of my normal spending patterns. I thought it might be a nice idea to get some cashback / miles / points on this amount. Obvious idea might be to charge it to my BofA Travel Rewards card and simply get 1,5% on this (which is also quite nice for such an amount of spending), but I thought it might be worth to apply for a card with some decent sign-up bonus for spending this kind of money. 

My first though was about CSP (I think it's 40000 points now for $3000 spent, which seems to be interesting), but I am a little bit hesitant to go for CSP now as I have only one card with a limit over $5000 now and my Chase Amazon card has only passed its 6-months mark recently). 

 

Any other ideas on what I can also apply for in order to maximize potential reward for spending this money? I normally don't consider cards with more than $1000 spending requirement in 2-3 months, as my CC spending is usually not that huge (except for airfare), but here is a little bit different case as technically money is not mine :-)

 

Thanks a lot for advice!

In my wallet now: Amex PRG NPSL, Amex BCE $15k $17k (thanks to recent CLI), Chase Freedom 11k, CSP $6k, Chase United ME $5k, Citi Dividend $5.6k, Discover It $4.5k and a handful of other cards...
TU Dec 2013 - 752Sep 2013 - 764 - new all time maximum

Obsolete data aboveCurrent TU - probably around ~810, only using a few Chase & BofA cards now, not applying for much until we buy a house
Message 1 of 8
7 REPLIES 7
ryanbush
Valued Contributor

Re: Decent sign-up bonus (not necessarily cashback, maybe miles/points) for spending $2000-3000...

I just got AMEX Delta Platinum today - it gave 30K miles after 500$ spend... not too shabby 

Chase Sapphire Perferred | Chase Freedom | AMEX Platinum | AMEX Delta Platinum | AMEX SPG | Capital One Venture | Capital One Quicksliver | Discover IT | ABFCU Visa | Citi AA WEMC
Message 2 of 8
HiLine
Blogger

Re: Decent sign-up bonus (not necessarily cashback, maybe miles/points) for spending $2000-3000...

Discover More, $200 bonus for $1,500 spending:

 

 

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/To-those-thinking-of-applying-for-Discover-It/td-p/1761...

 

I'm assuming your current Discover is more than one year old. Smiley Wink

Message 3 of 8
mikka1
Frequent Contributor

Re: Decent sign-up bonus (not necessarily cashback, maybe miles/points) for spending $2000-3000...

HiLine, thanks for advice. 

No, my More is now at its 8-months mark, but my DW doesn't have her own Discover and she keeps getting pre-approvals from them. Might be a good idea for her to apply...

In my wallet now: Amex PRG NPSL, Amex BCE $15k $17k (thanks to recent CLI), Chase Freedom 11k, CSP $6k, Chase United ME $5k, Citi Dividend $5.6k, Discover It $4.5k and a handful of other cards...
TU Dec 2013 - 752Sep 2013 - 764 - new all time maximum

Obsolete data aboveCurrent TU - probably around ~810, only using a few Chase & BofA cards now, not applying for much until we buy a house
Message 4 of 8
bs6054
Valued Contributor

Re: Decent sign-up bonus (not necessarily cashback, maybe miles/points) for spending $2000-3000...


@mikka1 wrote:

A couple of my friends living overseas asked me to buy them some stuff in the US worth roughly $2000-2500 in total. They will either wire me the money or hand it over to me in cash when we meet in person in the end of the month. So I have a chance now to easily spend roughly $2000-3000 on any card almost in one go without falling out of my normal spending patterns. I thought it might be a nice idea to get some cashback / miles / points on this amount. Obvious idea might be to charge it to my BofA Travel Rewards card and simply get 1,5% on this (which is also quite nice for such an amount of spending), but I thought it might be worth to apply for a card with some decent sign-up bonus for spending this kind of money. 

My first though was about CSP (I think it's 40000 points now for $3000 spent, which seems to be interesting), but I am a little bit hesitant to go for CSP now as I have only one card with a limit over $5000 now and my Chase Amazon card has only passed its 6-months mark recently). 

 

Any other ideas on what I can also apply for in order to maximize potential reward for spending this money? I normally don't consider cards with more than $1000 spending requirement in 2-3 months, as my CC spending is usually not that huge (except for airfare), but here is a little bit different case as technically money is not mine :-)

 

Thanks a lot for advice!


Also, what sort of "stuff", i.e. can it fit into a category that gets enhanced rewards.

Message 5 of 8
HiLine
Blogger

Re: Decent sign-up bonus (not necessarily cashback, maybe miles/points) for spending $2000-3000...


@mikka1 wrote:

HiLine, thanks for advice. 

No, my More is now at its 8-months mark, but my DW doesn't have her own Discover and she keeps getting pre-approvals from them. Might be a good idea for her to apply...


I would strongly advise that you guys do that. In terms of cash back bonus, $200 is probably the best offer on the market right now. If you're looking for frequent flier miles bonus, there may exist higher cash-equivalent offers. 

Message 6 of 8
mikka1
Frequent Contributor

Re: Decent sign-up bonus (not necessarily cashback, maybe miles/points) for spending $2000-3000...

 


@bs6054 wrote:
Also, what sort of "stuff", i.e. can it fit into a category that gets enhanced rewards.

Couple of unlocked iPhones 5 (unfortunately, they are still excluded from ShopDiscover bonuses from Apple) + some more rare items that I will be buying in specialized brick&mortar stores, and it is very unlikely I will find those kind of stores having enchanced rewards on any of my cards. 

It seems that the best way to go will be the following - I will try to apply for CSP myself first. If denied (odds of denial are high, unfortunately), I will ask my wife to apply for Discover with $200 sign-up bonus. If she is denied as well (which is also possible as she's quite new to credit and has only 2 cards now that are less than 6 months) I'll apply for Delta Amex :-)))) And only if this doesn't work as well, I'll say "f**k it" and charge it to my BofA Travel Rewards :-)

In my wallet now: Amex PRG NPSL, Amex BCE $15k $17k (thanks to recent CLI), Chase Freedom 11k, CSP $6k, Chase United ME $5k, Citi Dividend $5.6k, Discover It $4.5k and a handful of other cards...
TU Dec 2013 - 752Sep 2013 - 764 - new all time maximum

Obsolete data aboveCurrent TU - probably around ~810, only using a few Chase & BofA cards now, not applying for much until we buy a house
Message 7 of 8
sdoonan
Contributor

Re: Decent sign-up bonus (not necessarily cashback, maybe miles/points) for spending $2000-3000...

Have you shopped at these stores before? Check through your statements to see what the merchant codes are first.



Cards: CitiForward for Students (2K, opened 8/2009), Discover it (2K, opened 7/2010), AMEX BCE (1k, opened 12/2010), Capital One Quicksilver (4.5k, opened 11/2011), Chase Freedom (1.5k, opened 8/2014)

AMEX Platinum (NPSL, AC arrangement, added 12/2011), Citi AAdvantage AMEX (9k, AU, backdated to 9/2008)

Scores: TU 667, EQ 651

In the Garden since 8/8.
Message 8 of 8
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